Tvind

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Tvind is the name of an international school centre in the small town of Ulfborg in Denmark. Founded in 1970 as a travelling "højskole" based on a socialist ideology and a learning-by-doing pedagogics. Later basing itself on the Tvind farm which gave the school cooperation its name it became a popular center for youth counter culture in the 1970s and 1980s undertaking social development projects in third world countries, and some groundbreaking social and environmental experiments. For example in the mid-1970s Tvind, in a massive collaboration effort with students and teachers, constructed what was then the world's largest electricity producing windmill on the schoolgrounds. More Tvind schools emerged, and in 1997 there were 32 of them in Denmark, including a teacher training college, travelling folk high schools, youth schools and special schools for youngsters with special educational needs. An estimated 40.000 children, youth and adults have attended one of the Tvind schools since the foundation of the first school in 1970.

The schools in Tvind were run by the Teacher Group, an intentional community based on the principles of joint time, joint economy and joint distribution. Since 1970 the Teacher Group has grown to about 1000 members, and has spread its activities in a way that mostly resembles a modern global corporation running a network of schools, industries and agricultural productions throughout the world, as well as collecting used garments from the public and selling them in Europe, South America and Africa. Members of the Teacher Group also run a number of development aid projects in the Third World, through development aid organisations affilated to the Humana People to People movement.

Today the Teacher Group holds a large number of properties around the world, mostly purchased by the members' joint savings.

In the 1980s and 1990s, due to negative media attention, a waning faith in socialism and some scandals related to the authoritary pedagogics used by Tvind teachers, the Tvind schools became criticized, despite huge numbers of students having mostly good expereinces. The founder of Tvind Mogens Amdi Petersen disappeared from the public eye in the 1970s and was not seen until 2003 when he was arrested in the USA for charges of tax evasion presented by the Danish government.

In 1996 the Danish government passed a controversial law cutting government funding from a number of specific Tvind schools, but in 1999 this law was judged by the Danish Supreme Court as contradicting the Danish constitution.

In 2006, Mogens Amdi Petersen and other prominent members of the Teacher Group faced tax evasion and fraud charges in a Danish court. On August 31, 2006, Mogens Amdi Petersen, Tvind spokesperson Poul Jørgensen, Kirsten Larsen, former Chairman for the "Humanitære Fond" Bodil Ross, Financial Director Malene Gunst, lawyer Christie Pipps and Ruth Sejerøe-Olsen were all acquitted of charges. Former Secretary in the "Humanitære Fond" Steen Byrner was found guilty on a lesser charge. (see the verdict in Danish).

Tvind has been accused by some commentators of being a cult (see for example [1][2][3]).

Contents

[edit] Planet Aid

A typical Planet Aid collection box
A typical Planet Aid collection box

Planet Aid is a charitable (501(c)(3) organization that collects used clothing in the United States. As of 2007, its website said that it was collecting clothes in twelve areas: New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Baltimore-Washington, Richmond, Greensboro, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Kansas City and Los Angeles. In 2004 it was also operating two second-hand (thrift) stores in the Boston area; but by 2006, these stores were closed.

The 2005 Planet Aid annual report (the latest posted on its website) showed revenues of $14.1 million, "International aid" of $4.3 million, and other expenses of $8.8 million, primarily clothing collection. [4]

In April 2002, the Boston Globe reported on the connections between Planet Aid and for-profit and overseas organizations, and noted that the organization had published a brochure that claimed 50 percent of all donated clothing is given to the needy in developing countries. In fact, "almost all" of the clothing is sold rather than sent overseas, and about 6 percent of revenues was being given out as charity per the annual report for 2000. [5]

In October 2004, the Baltimore City Paper reported that former volunteers "say the organization is part of a complicated network of organizations that serve as a front for a shell game that shuffles money between charities and for-profit entities. They say that the projects being supported by Planet Aid are poorly run [and are] focused on fund raising more than on real charitable activities ..." [6]

[edit] Planet Aid: Canada

Planet Aid also operates five stores in the city of Toronto, Ontario, in Canada.

[edit] External links

[edit] Tvind websites

[edit] Criticism

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../t/v/i/Tvind.html"
In other languages